Iconic Blue Duck Inn at Anglers Rest back on the market

One of Victoria’s most iconic — and isolated — watering holes has hit the market. Find out all the details, including its asking price.

Famed High Country watering hole, the Blue Duck Inn at Anglers Rest, is back on the market for $1.5 million.

The iconic pub sold 12 months ago but the buyer struggled to secure finances and the sale fell through.

It was relisted last week by owners Lana Antony and Michael Mullins. The couple, originally from Melbourne, bought the historic Inn 13 years ago after spotting an ad for it in The Weekly Times.

“Mike said to me, look at this little place in the middle of nowhere,” Lana said.

The Blue Duck is located at the junction of three bountiful trout fishing rivers – the Cobungra, Bundarra and Mitta Mitta.

Surrounded by 650,000 hectares of national park, the historic Inn is a popular base camp for fishers, bushwalkers, kayakers, four-wheel drivers, motorbike and cycling enthusiasts.

There is a 50-seat indoor restaurant, six self-contained cabins, a manager’s residence and staff cabin.

Snow settles at the Blue Duck Inn at Anglers Rest.

It is situated on 1.2ha of freehold on the Great Alpine loop taking in Mt Beauty, Bogong, Falls Creek, Omeo, Dinner Plain, Mt Hotham, Harrietville and Bright. It is 2.5 hours from Albury and two hours from Bairnsdale.

There is no mains power, only generators, and water is pumped from the river as it was a century ago. The Inn’s history dates back to the early 1900s when it started out as a butcher shop servicing miners on their way to the Mt Wills gold fields.

Miner Billy O’Connell bought the building and a hotel license for it in 1912 after being told the main road would pass the site but that promise never eventuated. Billy nailed a panning dish to the front of the hotel and wrote “Blue Duck” on it in large letters, a mining term for white elephant.

Ironically, 110 years on, Lana and Michael now describe the historic Inn as a jewel in the crown of the Alpine National Park.

“It is a beautiful oasis in the middle of nowhere,” Lana said.

“The isolation is the selling point. It used to be mainly fisherman who came here but now it’s become a destination in itself.”

Blue Duck Inn at Anglers Rest is one of Victoria’s most isolated pubs.

Lana Antony outside the Blue Duck Inn Hotel at Anglers Rest..